What is Astik and Nastik?
We as humans are broadly unknowingly classified ourselfs within these two words.
1)Astik – Thiest
2)Nastik – Athiest
But do you really know what these two words really mean. Even if you search on google we get the answer that is generic.
Astik means those who believe in God.
Nastik means those who do not believe in God
But these two definitions are wrong WHY? Let me tell you.
When I was studying Masters of Yoga we learned Indian Philosophies and the first class that happened our teacher spent the whole 45 minutes just explaining us these two terms.
So first lets understand what the term philosophy means
Meaning of Indian Philosophy or Bhartiya Darshana
Philosophy literally means “ Love of Knowledge “. We all living beings struggle to live without any plan. But man being given this gift of brain and mind by the nature tries to understand the meaning behind his struggle.
Man wished that his life is lived in the light of his knowledge the world around him what his action or inaction have effect on this life and others.
Philosophy is and attempt to satisfy this very desire of Man.
The Sanskrit word “Darshana” means philosophy or perspective of and originates from “drsh” meaning “to view“.
For Darshana we need two things one is “drsh” which is “to see” and the other is “drishta”which is “the seer”.
Hence, darshana indicates “the process of looking at life and realizing the truth”. It does not mean seeing with the physical eyes nor does it mean to see through other senses in the outside world.
It means to see something beyond your senses and beyond your mind.
These perspective of life teaches us to examine life and the body-mind connection with the aim of realizing one’s true nature.
It tries to know things that immediately or remotely concern man
Where do we come from?
What is my aim in life?
How did this world come into being ?
What happens at the end of this life?
These are some of the questions that have troubled human mind from dawn of civilisation and Philososphy is means to satify them
Every Indian School has its own way to realise this truth or realisation of truth also called as enlightment or Tattva Darshana.
A man who realises the truth is free from all bondages and one who doesn’t is entangled in this world.
According to a traditional principles of classification the schools of darhsanas in Hindu Philosophy
Astika / Orthodox Philosophy
Astika or orthodox philosophies are classified as such not because they believe in God but because they believe and accept the authorities of Vedas. They also believe life after death the version described in Vedas.
Astik comes from the word Astha meaning having faith over here it means having faith in the Vedas. There are 4 Vedas namely Rigved, Yujurved, Atharvaved and Samaved.
Each Veda delivery different kind of knowledge hopefully in future I could write about those.
So as per Indian Philosophies there are 6 Astik philosophies therefore it is called Shat Darshana or Shaddarshanas.
6 Astik Philosophies or Shat Darshanas
1.Mimamsa Darshana – written by Sage Jamini
2.Vedanta Darshana – Sage Badrayana
3.Sakhya Darshana – Sage Kapila
4.Yoga Darshana – Sage Patanjali
5.Nyaya Darshana – Sage Gautama
6.Vaisesika Darshana – Sage Kanada
To read a little more about these philosophies I request you to read the following article
Out of 6 Astik philosophies of there are 2 who do not believe in God at all and those are Mimansa and Sankha or Samkhya Philosophy.
They do not believe in that God is the creator of the world. In future blogposts we will be discussing those in details.
They are the basis for other philosophies in Ashtik dashana like Samkhay Darshana is the basis for Yogasutra and Mimansa is the basis for Nyaya Darshana
Nastika / Heterodox Philososphy
Nastika Philosophies do not believe in the authority of Vedas. They can believe in God but not do not believe in Vedas.
How hope you understand that Vedas and God are different. They are independent of each other.
Eg Christians believe in God but they do not believe in Vedas so even thought they believe in God but as per our traditional Indian Classification we will categorise them as Nastika Philosophies. Thought this is a western lookout on life as a curious student of Yoga I was interested in knowing this philosophy.
3 Nastika Philosophies
1.Bauddha Darshan – Sage Gautama Budha
2.Jain Darshan – 24 Tritankaras of Jains
3.Carvaka Darshan – By Sage Charvaka
All the Nastik philosophies do not accept Vedas as their base and have their own ideas and philosophies.
To some the idea of philosophy should depend in the bases of experiences of a common man i.e. the turth discovered and accepted by common people or by scientist who accept and understand what is more tangible to them.
The Indian schools such as Nyaya, Buddha, Samkhya, Vaishesika, Carvaka and to some extent Jaina also accept this concept.
“The concept of God and Mosha nobody can describe it. We have to depend on the experience of thos saints, seers or prophets who have direct realization i.e. Sakshatkar of such things. Authority or the testimony of reliable persons and scriptures thus form the basis of philosophy” – An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by satishchandra Chatterjee and Direndramohan Dutta
As my husband is a Jain so the name Aarti Jain I have studied these philosophies in details and being a hindu from maternal side I have studies the astik philosophies also and both the views are so interesting.
None of the text are good or bad or one above the other all texts teach us how to be a human first and then look on the life beyond.
As a student of Yoga we learnt more technical aspect of these philosophies and you will be bowled by each and every philosophy I will guarantee. Even the Carvaka Philosophies which many learnt do not like to talk about but the concepts of that philosophy is so relevant in todays world.
We will be discussing all the philosophies in details in our future blogpost.
If you have any question I suggest you write a email to me and I would be very happy to answer.
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